E3 2018

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Since E3 has ended, it’s given me some time to contemplate the games I found that stood out to me the most. It was tough. We were treated to so many announcements, but there were some definitive trailers that have caught my eye.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Set within the glorious Greece timeline, we’re introduced to familiar but fresh combat systems and flexibility with a whole new twist on our main character and the overall development they acquire from the trailer.

Death Stranding

Created by the fantastic Hideo Kojima and staring the amazing yet gruff star Norman Reedus, we finally have news on Death Stranding! Shown to be a classic exploration and discovery game, the trailer from E3 2018 quickly shows us just how quickly a huge group of antagonists will change the course of the world by taking control of the protagonist.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Another fantastic edition to the already great franchise brings us what seems to be a cool combination of Fire Emblem Heroes‘ open world style fighting with the three separate paths used in Fire Emblem Fates. With massive armies shown right from the get-go, I can see it’s going to be very story driven.

Kingdom Hearts 3

One of the most beloved series from famous director Tetsuya Nomura, we were finally graced with an official release date for, you guessed it! Kingdom Hearts 3. I can personally say that I’m absolutely overjoyed to see just how far the series has come from its start in 2002. With the information given to us from the most recent trailers and interviews, this game is shaping up to be at least 90 hours long with a fantastic ending to the Xehanort Saga.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Coming back into the scene on September 7th of this year is everyone’s favorite webslinger with a new suit and an even newer story. Strap yourselves in because with this new Spidey, your actions will definitely have higher repercussions.

I hoped you enjoyed the read and for more updates check out @tehlunchboxpub on twitter

Another E3 has come and gone with surprising annoucements, reveals, and more games to be looking forward to later this year and the following year, it’s that time again to discuss which game truly stood and which conference takes the gold.

At this year’s E3, many games were shown off that grabbed our attention, and our wallets, although only a handful of titles truly deserved it.

Ever since it’s announcement at the Sony Press Conference last year, Insomniac’s Spider-man is a prime example of how to treat a lisence game and bring life to a fan-favorite hero. Insomniac Games is best known for popular titles like Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and Spyro. It was a surprise to see this company taking on a Spider-man game, but this journalist has faith in them.

The gameplay shown at Sony’s 2018 E3 press conference showed off Spider-man entering a high protected prison facility on a helicopter before getting shot down by Electro. After this happens, Spider-man finds himself inside the prison fighting his way past waves of enemies and finally web-swinging his way towards Electro. As he makes his way there, Spider-man is confronted by a handful of villians known as the ‘Sinister Six’ which consists of, Electro, Rhino, Shocker, Vulture, Scorpion, and a mysterious villian just before the demonstration ended.

Thus, this journalist is going with Insomniac Game’s very own, Spider-man as the best in show.

Best Confernece of E3?

This often a difficult question for most to answer as everyone is surely entitled to their own opionion and doesn’t wanna trash someone else’s. In this case, I’ll be writing about which confernece was really enjoyable.

Microsoft’s conference did deliver in annoucning 50 game titles and while we did a wide variety of games coming to the Xbox One exclusively and titles for multiple systems, the big downfall of the conference was the lack of discussing those annoucned to some extent. While the Sony Press Conference on the other hand focused on a few games to show off and present exciting new gameplay. Finally, fans of Naughty Dog’s Last of Us Part 2 were finally shown off gameplay and story, which is something many fans looked forward to see. From there we were presented a look at gameplay from Death Strading, a new title from Kojima. It showed off a bunch of exploring and quitely sneaking past enemies.

Though it’s only fair to give it to a studio from back home and that is Bethesda Studios. Bethesda Studios is best known for it’s Fallout and Elder Scrolls series. The latter of which fans were rejoiced to hear of Elder Scrolls Six being in development. But the star of the show was Todd Howard presenting fans with a look into the world of Fallout 76.

Bethesda Studios continues to innovate the gaming world with new and exciting games, including a new franhise in Starfield. This company is gonna continue bringing story and action pack games to life.

Bethesda, one of the most well-known gaming companies in 2018 has come to E3 for their fourth showcase. If E3 were a game of poker among these game developers, then Bethesda just showed their hand, and it seems like a high-end full house. Starting the night off with an opening from Andrew W.K performing Ready to Die while leading into the RAGE 2 demonstration.

Rage 2

The sequel to their 2011 release, Rage 2 seems to be offering the same formula with a few new auditions giving a large selection of ammo, weapons, and vehicle combat. There seems to be more story if the lack luster opening narration is to indicate anything other than setting the mood of the gameplay.

Elder Side Scrolling

Following Rage 2’s display, the audience found themselves swept into news about Elder Scrolls; specifically Elder Scrolls Legends. The App based card game centered around the lore of the series. Elder Scrolls Legends will be coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo’s Switch after being available on mobile for a year. The announcement did not end with a port plug, but a complete overhaul of the graphics and content with the port as well.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online was the next to be presented with it’s updates. More DLC coming including their new dungeon expansion and further lore building DLC with an Argonian center. Showing a bit of what has come before, then previewing the new before closing their video.

Doom has Risen

This was the first real shocker of the night. Doom already seems to have a sequel in the works. The smash hit from 2016, bring back the crucial elements of the original to an updated world of gaming and pushing it further by providing a memorable narrative with minimal dialog. Having only seen Doom VR as a following title, it was uncertain if we would see more Doom related content for a while, let alone a sequel. Yet we get just that, a strong presentation of a world gone to Hell and one solid stomp of a very commanding boot ready to resume some demon slaying duties.

Aside from the usual hyping the game up with a traditional “bigger and better” pitch, not much else can be confirmed other than there may be some part of the game that takes place on Earth and that there will be harder enemies and more ways to kill them.

The Revival

A historic title, Quake Champions is introduced by Joshua Boyle talking up the history of the franchise while showing off that Bethesda formula of keeping the good and upgrading the better. That formula is at play here, with all the changes going on with First Person Shooters this will be interesting to see if Quake’s return stands as another turning point for the genre.

Prey

Another hit, prey returns with the news of a free update happening that night, which will include Story Mode, New Game+, and Survival Mode for the hardcore of the group. Then launching into their spot for their DLC: Moon Crash. This DLC boasts the ability to provide unique runs every time for the player. To add to those announcements there is a new game mode available where it is one human player vs five mimc players in Typhon Hunter. A very exciting announcement for the series.

Wolfenstein

Two parts to this announcement from Machine Games:

Wolfenstein II is coming to the Switch

It’s getting a sequel

Just more good news all around, but to add to it we are seeing the addition of co-op and having the story follow BJ’s twin daughters, picking up his mantle in 1980’s Paris. The design looks great, and if they can improve on Wolfenstein II? A tall order but a welcome surprise if it is handled innovatively.

A VR game is coming out as well called Wolfenstein Cyber Pilot where you play the role of a hacker that controls robots to kill nazis. That’s the description we got almost verbatim.

Todd Howard

Quite possibly the high point for energy as far as presenters went. Starting things off with a pseudo-parody of porting Skyrim: Very Special Edition to Alexa with Keegan-Michael Key. This is actually available now.

After getting a rousing set of applause, before talking about what everyone was waiting for, Fall Out 76click here for the trailer. We are given confirmation on some of the rumours floating around, it is set in West Virginia, there will be green trees, and it is going to require an online connection to play. Although it is promised to just be a few dozen in the area the player would be participating in.

There also seems to be a focus on building, and being able to move it wherever you want to. Through a little narrative, and then using demo clips along side of the good old Vault Tec instructional videos to present the landscape, and highlight the idea of PvP and being able to launch Nukes on the map. There will be a Break-it-Early-Test-Application later this year, and you can sign up through Bethesda’s website, with the full game having it’s release date announced for November 14, 2018. Also coming with a Power Armor edition that includes a glow in the dark map, a wearable Power Armor helmet with headlamp, voice modulator, and more.

We continue with Todd informing the crowd about Fallout Shelter coming to the PS4 and to the Switch, but also the announcement of their newest mobile contribution in Elder Scrolls Blades. Seemingly, a less mobile version of an Elder Scrolls game, and the visual presentation makes it seem like another paper-rock-scissors battle game. It is very impressive graphically for a phone, however it was very limited in precise information. This game will also have a VR version that plays with players on any device. Elder Scrolls Blades will be available later this fall, and you can pre-register to get the game when it comes out, this can be done through Bethesda’s website or through the Google Play/Apple stores.

Todd’s presentation ends with no more news for 2018 but slightly further ahead, with a very brief tease of their original science-fiction space themed I.P. that is Starfield. The presentation lulled the audience into a warm sense of wonder, just to have violent curiosity thrust at them through what seems like a tear in space and time tearing through the fantastic image before the viewer.

Then to make this presentation truly memorial, Elder Scrolls VI is confirmed to be in the works. With the crowd going wild, the presentation comes to a close for the night.

What does the presentation mean?

It means that Bethesda has been busy, most people probably only expected one or two of the titles that were mentioned, but to get a new Quake, Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls updates everywhere? It would be hard to find much fault with being excited.

It is Bethesda, and generally they make some great games so there really shouldn’t be much to worry about, and yet here we are.

The Presentation was good overall. Lots to be excited about, and there was plenty of humor and nice sneak peaks. However, some portions of the presentation felt longer than they needed to be, and the focus seemed to be more on App based games than that of PC, Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo. When we got to see a bit of Doom, Wolfenstein, and Starfield felt so small in comparison to the attention Rage 2 or Elder Scrolls: Blades received.

Fallout 76 being the stand-out exception of possibly feeling like there was too little. We may have received too much and too little information at the same time. With the direction being presented, it is still very vague as to how Fallout 76 is going to pan out. On one hand it could be amazing, if they can balance a Fallout experience of exploration and fighting with other players forming a story could be a masterpiece. With what has been presented, it leaves worry about the game becoming Minecraft with built-in Nukes, or devolving into a post apocalyptic Battle Royale game. Despite the wants and worries of the presentation, Bethesda delivered on what was expected and gave the fans more, hopefully it’s more of what will work. And if you liked that check out @tehlunchboxpub on twitter for more E3 news.

Sable deviates from the average modern fighting game. Instead, this Indie game is an open-world desert exploration game, as explained by the core development team. This is a game about solitude and exploration.

A girl leaves her home to explore the world and learns about its culture and history. Sable; the main character of the game, explores this desert ridden with monumental architecture and fallen space ships.

According to Greg Kythreotis, their art style is heavily influenced by French and Belgian comics, as well as Japanese animation and Studio Ghibli. Paired with Japanese Breakfast’s soundtrack, this game looks extremely promising.

As of this moment, there is no confirmed release date but it’s looking like this game will be releasing sometime in 2019. To learn more about this game check out their website. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest news @tehlunchboxpub!

Have you ever wanted to live life as a shark and eat every living thing on the Gulf Coast?

Me neither, but this game definitely peaked my interest. Blindside created this single player action RPG where you play as a giant Bull Shark and terrorize tourists by ripping through them one limb at a time.

This exciting game allows you to customize your personal man-eating shark and gives you the ability to allocate points to your shark skill-tree. It has a full single player campaign and everything!

If you are interested in learning more about Maneater, check out their website! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest news @tehlunchboxpub!

After Five years of waiting since the first teaser was released, Square Enix finally has an official date for the highly anticipated third installment.

Kingdom Hearts 3 will release early next year on January 29th for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. January 25th will be the release date for it in Japan. The original release date was supposed to be scheduled for this year but was delayed. Below is a statement issued by Franchise director Tetsuya Nomura via twitter regarding the delay.

“We’ve announced the release day for KINGDOM HEARTS III ahead of E3 at the KINGDOM HEARTS Orchestra -World Tour-. I’m sorry that we’re asking for a little more time than initially planned. Please look forward to other information, including a few trailers at E3. Thank you,”

As many of you know Disney’s Frozen has been incorporated into the Kingdom Hearts world along with the inclusion of a Simba summon. If you haven’t caught the trailer you can check it out below.

They made sure to release plenty more during the conference including the return of Organization XIII member Xigbar, as well as further story hints. Not to mention a brief appearance by Remi from Ratatouille.

In more extended looks (seen above) we got bits of the Toy Story and Hercules worlds as well. There was also confirmation of a ($230 dollar) collectors edition so get it when you can once it drops in the coming year. And for more on E3 check out our twitter @tehlunchboxpub.

One of the first games the PC Gaming Show starts off with is Mavericks Proving Grounds, which hops onto the hype train of battle royale-esque games that have been coming out as of late. One of the few things that make this game stand out is the fact that 999 other players will be fighting to the death for the number one spot!

Like PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS–PUBG for short–the round starts off as the player leaps from heights and lands on the map to collect loot and slay their fellow opponents.

James Thompson, also known as the CEO of Automaton Games, says that this game is a last man standing type of game and it’s all about death. He says that the environment caters to helping the player annihilate adversaries.

Sign up for their beta testing before June 17th at mavericks.gg/closed-beta and you can follow them on Twitter @playmavericks. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for the latest news @tehlunchboxpub!

Bethesda is best known for creating stunning and vast worlds in their games, and Fallout is no exception. A few weeks ago, Bethesda had released an image of their classic, “Please Stand By” in bright colors. Fans had suspected that it could possibly be a remake of Fallout 3 or New Vegas however, that wasn’t the case.

Bethesda had released a teaser trailer for Fallout 76, in the trailer we were taken to a familiar scenery inside a vault shelter with party decorations in the main dining room, with vault dweller wearing a jumpsuit with the number “76” on the back.

At Microsoft’s E3 2018 Press Conference, Todd Howard, director of Bethesda Game Studios, arrived on stage and revealed a new trailer for Fallout 76.

Good stuff here and it will be interesting to see how it plays out when it arrives November 14, 2018. And check us out on twitter @tehlunchboxpub for all your E3 updates.

Microsoft started off strong by showcasing a trailer for Halo Infinite, as the trailer showcased a vast landscape, beautiful scenery, and a vast wildlife. While nearing the end of the trailer, we see a group of soldiers, it’s possible to be marine soldiers, walking through some fields.

Then, the trailer pans to show Master Chief holding his helmet, then putting it on as he inserts Cortana, or some other form of A.I. into his helmet.

While not much else was shown in the trailer with no new information presented, fans should expect Master Chief to make a return in this new game.

Halo Infinite is being developed by 343 Industries and will be released on windows 10 and Xbox One. No announcement yet on a release date. Make sure to follow us on twitter for the latest news @tehlunchboxpub

FromSoftware brings to life a brand new hack and slash game, with vicious battles, and no doubt a lot of dying. Working along side publisher Activision, FromSoftware is bringing to life a new game set in a samurai -style setting with a dark souls feel to it in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

FromSoftware showcased not only the hack and slash functions of the game, but also how your now skeleton left hand can assit the player in combat and how to manuver through the world. For example, the trailer shows the player revealing an axe just before charging in to take out one of the bosses minions, or using it as a grapping hook to get onto a platform. For a better look take a look at the trailer below.

Sekiro: Shadows DieTwice is set to be released early 2019 on Playstation 4, PC, and Xbox One. And for all your news updates from E3, check out @tehlunchboxpub on twitter.